MEN IN BLACK (Columbia) Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Will Smith, Linda Fiorentino, Vincent D'Onofrio, Rip Torn. Screenplay: Ed Solomon, based on the comic book by Lowell Cunningham. Producers: Walter F. Parkes and Laurie MacDonald. Director: Barry Sonnenfeld. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (profanity, violence) Running Time: 98 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
If BATMAN & ROBIN arrived as the summer film everyone was ready to hate, MEN IN BLACK arrived as the film everyone was ready to love. This was to be the antidote to a season filled with moribund sequels and lackluster high concepts, a cinematic life preserver for movie-goers drowning in over-promoted and under-developed bilge water blockbusters. It would bring together an appealing rising star, a savvy veteran character actor, an idiosyncratic director, a clever concept and fun visual effects. This, at last, would be something worth standing in line for.
MEN IN BLACK the movie -- as opposed to MEN IN BLACK the much-anticipated event -- isn't worth standing in line for. It's a frisky, fairly enjoyable summer fantasy, one which avoids the common big-budget trap of over-staying its welcome. At the same time, it's a bit disappointing, and for an unexpected reason. MEN IN BLACK has been edited to the point where scenes collide awkwardly, where attempts at sub-plots cry out for more development. It's a film which actually _under_-stays its welcome.
That says a lot for what is on the screen for just over 90 minutes. The story, based on the comic book series by Lowell Cunningham, deals with a top-secret government agency called the Men in Black. Their responsibility is overseeing the earth's alien population -- alien, as in the extra-terrestrial kind -- as well as keeping the existence of those aliens secret from the general population. Tommy Lee Jones plays a veteran MiB known only as Agent K who brings in New York cop James Edwards (Will Smith) as a new recruit. The newly-christened Agent J soon discovers that he has come aboard at a particularly bad time, as one foul-tempered alien visitor arrives on a mission which could spell the destruction of the planet.
When director Barry Sonnenfeld plays that premise for its most outrageous and witty comic possibilities, MEN IN BLACK is a whole lot of fun. Jones and Smith have a solid rapport in a variation on the standard buddy-cop pairing, turning in performances which are knowing without winking too obviously at the audience. Their supporting cast is sharp as well, particularly Vincent D'Onofrio in a hilarious turn as the sadistic alien Bug who inhabits the skin of a redneck farmer; D'Onofrio's physical movements are even more hideously other-worldly than Rick Baker's make-up effects. The grandest, goofiest moments involve MiB Headquarters, rendered by Bo Welch's production design and Eric Brevig's visual effects as a cross between Kennedy Airport, Ellis Island and Mos Eisley Spaceport. When a bank of television monitors show "known aliens" including Newt Gingrich, Dionne Warwick and Sylvester Stallone, you know that MEN IN BLACK will proceed with tongue firmly in cheek.
That wry charm, along with the collected talent in MEN IN BLACK, should have been enough to justify the hype. And so they might have been, if Sonnenfeld had put together a film with a momentum to match its moments. The plot races from place to place so quickly that you're never given a chance to piece it together. K's recruitment of J is handled awkwardly, attempts at creating an emotional core in K's pining over his lost love feel rushed and unnecessary, and Linda Fiorentino (as a coroner caught up in the alien shenanigans) never develops a character. As a collection of amusing individual scenes, MEN IN BLACK is just fine. It just never makes sense when precious minutes are devoted to half-hearted attempts at character development.
It's not fair to call MEN IN BLACK unsatisfying, because there's a lot of great stuff in it. It does, however, feel unfinished; it's great stuff not yet formed into a great movie. More to the point, it functions best as a set-up for -- oh bitter irony -- yet another big-budget summer sequel. Only when compared to its current competition is it the summer masterpiece everyone was ready for it to be.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 black operations: 6.
Visit Scott Renshaw's MoviePage http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~srenshaw Subscribe to receive reviews directly via email
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